Monthly Archives: January 2017

Last offseason, the Eagles took a kitchen sink approach to the quarterback position: signing Sam Bradford to a contract extension, signing Chase Daniel in free agency, and trading significant draft picks to move up in the draft and acquire Carson Wentz. In a league where the haves and have-nots are usually separated by who is manning the quarterback position, it seemed like a sensible, if not costly, approach.

The Eagles were able to capitalize on this investment to an extent. As I detailed last week, trading Bradford helped offset some of the lost draft capital used to acquire Wentz. The Eagles also got off the hook for a significant portion of the $18 million salary that Bradford is slated to make next season, which should come in handy when trying to re-sign their own players (cough, Bennie Logan) or upgrade the receiver position in free agency (cough, DeSean Jackson).

But the Eagles situation at quarterback, at least as it relates to the cap, isn’t as good as it could be. One of the chief benefits of starting a quarterback on his rookie deal is that you are getting him at well-below market value, which frees up money for improving the rest of the roster. The Seahawks were able to win a Super Bowl thanks, in part, to being able to retain some of their best defensive players while Russell Wilson was making a paltry $500,000 a year.

But based on the Eagles moves last year, they won’t get to take advantage of having Wentz on his rookie deal until 2018. Let me explain.

For starters, by trading Sam Bradford after June 1st, the Eagles are required to carry $5.5 million of Bradford’s remaining bonus to next season. (Note, if you don’t want to read the explanation about the CBA’s rules, skip these next two paragraphs). Under the CBA, the NFL uses June 1 as a deadline for how unpaid portions of a player’s bonus is treated under the salary cap. It’s essentially a rule of accounting. When a player is removed from a roster prior to June 1st — whether via trade or being released — all of his remaining unamortized bonus money immediately accelerates onto the salary cap of that season. If a player is traded or released after June 1st, like Sam Bradford (who was traded on September 3rd), only his current year’s salary and bonus remains on the cap; the balance of the bonus money accelerates onto the next year’s cap.

Taking this out of the abstract, Bradford had $11 million remaining on his bonus entering the 2016 season. $5.5 million of that bonus was paid to Bradford before he was traded and remained on the Eagles salary in 2016. However, because Bradford was traded after that June 1st cutoff, the remaining $5.5 million is on the Eagles books for year.

The Eagles also invested big in Chase Daniel, making him the highest paid backup quarterback in the NFL (he’s technically the second highest paid behind Tony Romo, who was relegated to backup duty after a broken back helped pave the way for Dak Prescott to become the starter). Daniel has an $8 million salary cap hit next season, $7 million of which is dead money. So there’s a snowballs chance in hell they are cutting him.

One the one hand, if the Eagles didn’t have to account for Bradford’s or Daniel’s contracts, they would have an extra $13.5 million in cap space. That money would certainly come in handy given the significant holes on this roster at running back, wide receiver and cornerback.

But on the other hand, if the Eagles never re-signed Bradford, they wouldn’t have a 1st round pick this year or an extra 4th round pick next year. So I don’t necessarily disagree with the decision to re-sign Bradford (although part of that is admittedly based on the outcome of being able to trade him for a 1st and a 4th; had that trade not been made, we might be having a different discussion).

What about Daniel? On the one hand, $8 million seems like a grossly excessive amount to pay Daniel, especially given what we know about Wentz today. But on the other hand, the Eagles didn’t (a) have any idea that Wentz was going to be ready to play when they signed Daniel, and (b) we can’t discount the positive impact Daniel has had on Wentz’s development.

Consider this story from ESPN.com back in September, which discussed how Daniel was able to get Wentz to approach preparing for a game the same way Daniel was taught to prepare by Drew Brees in New Orleans:

“It honestly started my rookie year,” Daniel remembers. “Drew was like, ‘Hey, we’re going to be here at 5:30 in the morning, and this is what we’re going to watch on Wednesdays, this is what we’re going to watch on Thursdays, this is what we’re going to watch on Fridays.’ And I was like, ‘OK. Yes, absolutely. I’ll do whatever you say.’ I’m a rookie, he’s throwing for 5,000 yards a season.

“As time progressed there, we sort of got into a routine. I have two pages of notes on the schedule of exactly what we’re supposed to do, and I sort of brought that to Kansas City with us. Alex [Smith] really loved it, felt he was really prepared and that’s sort of what I’ve tried to bring here with Carson.”

Daniel didn’t reveal everything about the blueprint, but did share some details. First, the quarterbacks are in the film room, clicker in hand, at 5:30 a.m. During the heavy days of prep, they remain in the building until about 7 or 7:30 at night. The “day off” — Tuesday — is a six or seven-hour day, as the quarterbacks get a head start on the film.

“We’re always staying one day ahead of the team. [Thursday], we put base behind us and we started on third down. [Friday], we put third down behind us and we get started on red zone. We’re always staying one step ahead and we’re always going back and checking, ‘OK, here’s the base plan.’ We have this schedule where it just fits. It works well for the mental reps and the mental side of things and so far Carson likes it, he enjoys it.”

Is that worth $8 million next year? It’s hard to quantify. Odds are the answer is likely no — they likely could have paid him slightly less and still got the same benefit.

But at the end of the day, we are really only talking about a few million dollars. And since the Eagles will only be on the hook for Wentz’s $7.2 million in 2018 (the Eagles would save $7 million by releasing Daniel, so he is certainly gone after next season), this isn’t a problem that will hamper the Eagles long-term.

Bottom line: the Eagles won’t have the same cap flexibility that other teams have when starting a quarterback on a rookie contract. But given the circumstances, it isn’t as big of a problem as it seems at first blush.

Now that the regular season has ended, we have a better understanding of just how much the Eagles traded to acquire Carson Wentz when we factor in their subsequent trade of Sam Bradford to the Minnesota Vikings. Indeed, the latter trade was made as a result of the former, and will forever be linked in determining the foreseeable future of this franchise. Here is a breakdown of the picks the Eagles sent out and received as a result of both trades:

Year

Traded

Received

2016

1st (8)

3rd (77)

4th (100)

1st (2)

2017

1st (12)

1st (14)

4th

2018

2nd

4th

If we look at this from a pure draft pick perspective, the Eagles only traded Sam Bradford, a 1st, 2nd and 3rd round pick in exchange for Carson Wentz and 4th round pick.

Seems like a no brainer — right?

But the Eagles got an even better ROI once we consider the actual value of each pick involved in the trade. According to the draft value chart, the number 2 overall pick the Eagles used to draft Wentz is worth 2,600 points. The number 8 overall pick they traded to acquire him was worth 1,400 points. That’s a net difference of 1,200 points.

Meanwhile, the Eagles first round pick this year that is heading to Cleveland is #12 overall, and is worth 1,200 points, while the pick they acquired from the Vikings for the Bradford trade, #14 overall, is worth 1,100 points. Meaning they lost 100 points in draft value.

Subtract that 100 points in lost value from the 1,200 in points gained as a result of moving up from 8 to 2, and the Eagles had a total net gain of 1,100 points. That is the functional equivalent of the #14 overall pick in the draft.

I might have lost some of you there with the math, so let me make this simple. The Eagles essentially traded Sam Bradford, a 1st, a 2nd and a 3rd in exchange for Carson Wentz, the #14 overall pick and a 4th round pick.

The math will change slightly as we learn the value of the other picks involved in this trade, but overall, that is unbelievable value, especially if Carson Wentz ends up being as good as we think he can be.

UPDATE: Dave Mangel of Bleeding Green Nation pointed out that we should also factor in that the Eagles traded Kiko Alonso, Byron Maxwell and DeMarco Murray. This is true, although we also need to consider what the Eagles received in return for moving these players. And that is where we start to open the Pandora’s Box a little bit.

The Eagles were able to move up from 13 to 8 thanks to trading Alonso and Maxwell, which is worth the 4th pick in the 3rd round, according to the Draft Value Chart. The Eagles also moved up to the top of the 4th round thanks to the pick swap involved in the Murray trade. Both picks were included in the Wentz deal, so both trades should be considered. Of course, we should also consider that the Birds received significant cap space as a result of all of the trades. Maxwell still had approximately $55 million remaining on his contract, $13 million of which was guaranteed. Murray had $9 million remaining in guaranteed money on the $42 million contract he signed. And trading Bradford removed his $18 million in salary that he was owed in 2017 (although $5.5 million in guaranteed salary from 2016 carries over to the 2017 cap). Parsing through the exact relief is a little bit tricky, but suffice it to say, the newfound cap space helped the Eagles retain Lane Johnson, Fletcher Cox and Zach Ertz, and freed up cap space to address holes on the Eagles roster in the next two seasons (as opposed to paying Bradford, Murray, and Maxwell).

I think we are extending this analysis too far, but I won’t argue if you want to take this analysis as far back as you can go. If we did that, the end result looks something like this: Bradford, #13 overall, Murray, Maxwell, Alonso, a 2nd and a 3rd for Wentz, the #14 overall pick, a high 3rd, a 4th and approximately $35 million in cap space that helped retain Cox, Johnson and Ertz.

Bottom line: the Eagles were able to minimize the cost of acquiring their franchise quarterback of the future thanks to a series of smart trades by Howie Roseman. That the Eagles traded players they had no intentions of keeping on their roster long term is just icing on the proverbial cake.